Welcome to TheOneRing.netís message boards! Please respect and follow the following rules of our boards, and most of all, have fun!

1. Decisions of moderators and administrators are final.

2. We strive to maintain a ďfamily friendlyĒ atmosphere that is welcoming to users of all ages. That means no cursing (including '***disguised***' profanity), swearing, excessive sexual innuendo or posting pics that contain nudity. Basically, if itís not allowed during prime family-watching time on TV (roughly a PG rating), itís not appropriate here. Additionally, links posted by users that lead to sites that do not hold to the same family friendly standards may be edited or deleted at the discretion of the board Admins/Moderators. An official link from TORn's front page (including News from Bree posts) to another site is a referral to the linked article/information only. We cannot guarantee the quality or family-friendly nature of other site content, including user comments. Please use your own discretion when following links to external sites. 3. Posts containing racial, ethnic, religious, political, sexual or other slurs, personal attacks (on a TORn user or other person) intentional attempts to drive posters away or make them feel unwelcome, or posts made with the purpose of criticizing or insulting another poster will be edited or removed.

4. No image banners or advertisements for other sites and/or discussion boards are allowed. The companies and websites that advertise on TORn have paid for that privilege. If you wish to advertise a site or company, please feel free to contact corvar@theonering.net. User names that contain the name of your business, website, favorite charity, etc. are not allowed. Links or banners intended to sell products, promote charities or other causes are also not allowed. Exceptions include text links to your personal home page or website in your profile and/or footer.

5. Speaking of footers, so footer images donít get too busy or big, please limit them to no more than 50k and no bigger than 240x180 pixels in size. Also, please limit footer text to no more than 15 lines of text. No image banners are allowed in footers (see #4). Also, no animated footers, pics in footers with links to your site, or pics that link to the site where your footer pic is posted, are allowed.

6. No spamming of the boards. This includes, but is not limited to, repeatedly posting the same or similar content more than one time or in more than one forum, excessive no-text posts, or posts made with such frequency as to disrupt normal operations of the board. Spamming also includes registering for the sole purpose of promoting your website, yourself, your Ebay auction, etc. (exceptions: if you have or find an auction that is directly related to Lord of the Rings collectables, it may be posted on our Gaming and Collecting board).

7. Weíve gone to great lengths to include a variety of forums for all sorts of different interests and purposes. Please read the forum descriptions and post on the most appropriate board. Also, please check page one of a board before you start a thread. If there is already a thread on the same, or similar topic, either post your comment in the existing thread or wait until it falls to page two. Similarly, please limit the number of threads you start to 5 on page 1 of any board at a time to give everyone's threads a chance to be read and discussed.

8. Any abuses of the private messaging system will result in a warning to the offending user(s) and/or a possible ban. Please contact an Admin if you receive an abusive or spammish PM (a listing of Admins is included on this Welcome board). The contents of another memberís private messages should never be publicly posted on the boards without their permission.

9. Along the same lines, personal information (including photos) is not to be given out about any individual without their permission. In particular, persons under 18 years of age should seek parental consent before giving out personal information in public or private through the use of the message board. 10. We practice general rules of "netiquette" here, including NOT POSTING IN ALL CAPS (it's considered shouting) and not 'hotlinking' directly to pictures on another website (it uses up their bandwidth which is costing them money). If you want to post pictures without hotlinking, please refer to the FAQ on this Welcome Board for recommended methods. For more on netiquette, visit Wikipedia's Netiquette entry. Scroll down for netiquette specific to message boards. 11. The use of copyrighted material should be limited to selected quotes that convey just enough of the essence of a topic to spark discussion. This includes quoting from any of Tolkien's works (J.R.R. or Christopher), quoting from works by other authors of books, lectures or essays and quoting from news stories published in magazines or on the internet. Sources should always be cited and links to the original source provided if available. Not sure if material is copyrighted? Look for references to copyrights, read the source site's Terms of Service or simply err on the side of caution. For more information, follow the link to the "Fair Use" clause of Copyright Law at the bottom of each boards and read this post on the Feedback Board.

12. If another poster violates the rules, please just ignore their post or PM and notify an Admin or Superuser (list available on this Welcome Board). Debating with hostile posters (also known as trolls) about their behavior only causes threads to degenerate. Stick to the topic of the thread, rather than the personalities involved. Another person's poor behavior is not an excuse to misbehave. In other words: please donít feed the trolls!

13. Still have questions about our rules? Please refer to rule #1.

Note: These rules and regulations may change at any time with or without notice, and be enforced under the new conditions immediately upon such change. The user agrees, by use of this message board, to abide by these rules and be censored in any form the administration of such board deems necessary or proper to be conducive to an environment best suited for their type of message board.